Amenity
by Synesthete
Summary: Post "Vanishing Point" vignette.


Notes:  
I'm tweaking the next chapter of "He'd Have Pointed Ears" that I'll be posting soon. (I don't know where my beta went. :/ )  
This vignette can be considered to happen in that story's universe.

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With a whoosh, she'd launched off the bed straight onto the floor and heaved in gasps of air. Her hot breath was reflected back to her face by the deck a mere centimeter or two away.

"Hosh?", came a mumble from the narrow bed. He slapped a languid hand to his face and rubbed his eyes in order to even begin getting a bearing on what was up. "You okay?"

But with her ears full of the sound of her blood pumping and her brain reverberating with the frustratingly incomprehensible gibberish of the lavender, scute-covered aliens, she didn't hear him.

In her head, she'd just transported over to the alien ship.

Again.

And he was there, right there by her on that alien ship, but he wouldn't look at her.

Why wouldn't he look at her?

"What's wrong?" Now he was behind her where she couldn't see him, on the bed, legs over the side, hand reaching out to her back.

When his fingers connected, she jumped; from her position on all fours, she rolled instinctively to the side and onto her back and retreated from there to a sitting position in order to dodge an assault that never came.

She knew one of those aliens had caught on to her presence. But since he couldn't see her, only she was left to stop the alien from

Wait, no.

Her mouth formed a silent 'o' as her vision steadily cleared from dream to reality. There he was, in front of her on the edge of his bed, and she was sure he was looking directly at her. Squinting down at her clenched hands in the dimly-lit darkness, she she could now just make out the texture she'd thrown herself onto a minute ago; this deck wasn't that of the alien ship's but of the iEnterprise/i.

She shuddered.

Bemused by such irrational behavior from her but not willing to attempt touching her again right away, he queried with the obvious: "Bad dream?"

She jerked her head from one side of her to the other to double-check her surroundings before answering. "I'm on iEnterprise/i, right?"

"'Course you are."

"And you can see me?"

He carefully scooted down off the bed down to sit on the floor in front of her. "So it was the same dream you had while rematerializing this afternoon."

It took a couple of seconds, but she acknowledged that with a slight, terse nod.

"Yes, you are here, and I can see you. A lot of you because you're very naked this time.", his eyebrows teased along with his words.

Oh. OH. She was. And so was he. Because earlier they had been

"It's okay.", he took ahold of her hand nearest him. "It was just a figment of your very active and very creative imagination."

The intent was to be comforting, but she was still internally worked up, and with a disapproving shake of her head, that turbulence was about to condense into words and gush forth. "But you were ignoring me. You were acting like I wasn't there!"

"Hoshi. I'm here now.", he squeezed her hand. Here now, naked on the floor next to his girlfriend of three weeks.

But it didn't impede her outburst, and her head wobbled in the negative. "You thought I DIED, but you didn't even seem that upset!"

He blinked. "I promise I would be upset if you died."

After a pause, she asked, "How upset?"

He stared blankly. Was he not awake enough for this, or would being awake make this worse for him? "Very upset."

She screwed up her eyes in response.

He may only need six hours of sleep a night, but they needed to be six iquality/i hours. "Ah'd cry an' everything. Promise.", he indulged her with a steady gaze, brows pushing up a series of wrinkles into his forehead, albeit along with the trademark twinkle in his eye.

So he's kidding but not really kidding, she decided after mulling it over.

"How 'bout we worry 'bout that in another fifty years 'r so, and let's go back t' sleep f'r tonight." He tested her hand out again, and this time she returned the pressure, so counterweighting, they pulled each other up off the floor in one go. He set to hunting around for their skivvies skivvies they were supposed to be dressed in at all times in case of emergency. While she crossed her arms and self-conscously rubbed her hands up and down them over emerging gooseflesh, he located the items where they'd been dropped or tossed here and there earlier, during their second bedroom experience together. For her, throwing her clothing to the metaphorical wind this night was partly born out of a need to connect with him after being trapped in the transporter buffer.

Finally annoyed with herself for letting her anxiety get the better of her and being ridiculous, she frowned and snatched the two items he proffered her and applied them as he applied his undies. "I'm sorry. I should probably get back to my quarters.", she muttered, embarrassed.

"Come t' bed, Hoshi.", he chided as he popped down on the mattress, inviting her back by holding out his hand again. But she didn't immediately take it. "I want you t'have some company, an' you know the captain's okay with it."

She gripped his fingers and cracked a grin when he reeled her in. "I wonder if the captain would be okay with a bigger bed.", she snarked, giving him a peck on the lips before settling in on her side up against him due to the space constraints.

It wasn't long before he was rubbing soothing circles on her exposed arm, and after another minute, she found herself relaxed. Leaning back into him, a comforted smile played at her lips. "Thanks, Trip."

"Any time.", he half-consciously replied, already dozing back off to sleep again.


End file.
